App Profile: Tampa Bay Times

Jenpsaki

Rating: 4/5

The good: Great investigative reporting, general news and sports reporting. Editorial content is insightful, thought provoking and balanced. The not so good: This may seem trivial to you but the bags used to protect the paper on the two delivery days are terrible- flimsy and always tear when they hit the driveway. Paper is ruined if there are wet conditions. Our parents were carriers of the St. Petersburg Times for 30 years so we appreciate what is required to deliver the paper in all conditions. We still enjoy holding and reading a paper paper but understand the technological world we now live in and why newspapers everywhere are struggling. I would ask that, on the two days we get a real paper, more care would be taken to make sure it was in one piece and readable. At least until, inevitably, a virtual paper becomes our only option.

Postal hunter

Rating: 5/5

I have been a life long reader of the St. Petersburg times. I love the print version and thought I would never be like reading the paper on an iPad. Due to the economic downturn caused by COVID-19 the St. Pete Times suspended home delivery, except on Wednesday and Sunday. I have been forced to adapt and at first I hated it. But after a month, I have to say that I prefer newspaper on the iPad. Mainly because it’s easier. You click on an article and it’s right in front of you. Not at the top of the page or at the crease and the inevitable second part is there also. The Sunday Times(if you have home delivery) comes with a printed supplement that has all of the puzzles for the week. This was an A++ reason for my enjoying the e-paper. So to sum it up, I love it and don’t see any reason to return daily delivery.

Dave MacDaddy

Rating: 5/5

This app was recently updated and I couldn’t be happier about it! Updates can be a hit or miss situation but I think the developers got it just right now. Besides a needed UI update that looks gorgeous and is easy to navigate, in my experience thus far the stability and smoothness of the app as a whole has reached new levels, eliminating many little bugs that I have put up with for years. I am a huge fan of the comics, read daily for many years, and the app for years was very flaky when resizing the page on my mobile devices... all of them. Now, the pages load effortlessly and resize without incident. You would not believe how happy that makes me... there were times that I would have to open and close the paper completely a few times before the comics pages would load in focus. Good job Tampa Bay Times!